


Meet Cute

by alecmagnuslwb



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Meet-Cute, Post-Episode: s03e17 Heavenly Fire, Siblings, i don't honestly know anything about her brothers but i needed them for this fic to work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25860478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alecmagnuslwb/pseuds/alecmagnuslwb
Summary: Despite the numerous events of the night the only thing Helen can’t stop thinking about is the way Aline Penhallow made her feel in one short interaction.
Relationships: Helen Blackthorn & Julian Blackthorn & Mark Blackthorn, Helen Blackthorn/Aline Penhallow
Kudos: 17





	Meet Cute

**Author's Note:**

> Writer’s month 2020 day 12, prompt: Meet Cute
> 
> Set directly after their first meeting in 3x17. Let the record show that I’ve never really read any of the books past TMI so her brother’s characterizations here might be completely inaccurate, but I wanted to use some of her siblings and they’re the two I know names of.

Aline Penhallow throws Helen off center. Their entire exchange lasts no more than two minutes after Victor Aldertree is hauled away for his crimes, but it feels significant.

She goes through the motions of telling her story to the proper officials diligently answering their questions and preparing herself for the demotion that’s likely headed her way. She checks in with the others involved in the evening to be certain they’re all right and offers a no holds bar hand of help to Raphael and the other former Downworlders she unknowingly harmed.

The entire time she can’t stop thinking about the way Aline’s eyes had lingered on her though. About the long coat Aline was wearing and the way her high heeled boots made her just a little bit taller than Helen.

Aline is pretty, the kind of pretty that you can’t ignore. The kind that when directed at you sticks and makes you feel special. She’s also kind that much Helen could tell immediately from the way she’d thanked Helen for what she’d done, gone as far to call her brave even for just doing what felt like the right thing to do.

Kind and pretty can be a dangerous combination, often too hard to come by in their world.

The way Aline seemed to get her in just a few short moments, understand her motivations so quickly settles in her chest warmly as she heads to her family’s home after everything’s settled down and she’s been dismissed for the night.

She doesn’t even think about the looming meeting with the Consul, Aline’s mother, she’ll have to have the following day as she journeys home. She just thinks about the way Aline’s visible runes looked against her tan skin.

She walks in the large double doors of the Blackthorn home and heads to the kitchen with a big, no doubt dreamy smile on her face as she recalls the way Aline had looked her up and down before walking away.

She opens the fridge to search for something to eat, the fact she hasn’t had a moment to breathe all day let alone eat hitting her suddenly.

“What are you smiling so much about?” her younger brother Julian says startling her as she shuts the fridge. He’s sitting on the counter legs swinging lightly back and forth with a sketch pad in his lap and a pencil in his hand. It says a lot about the effect that Aline has had on her that she didn’t even see him sitting there.

“I assumed you’d be a bit more distressed looking after the evening I heard you had,” Mark, her older brother, says entering the kitchen. He maneuvers around her retrieving the milk from the fridge, a large bowl, spoon and a family size box of Lucky Charms. Because everything they buy has to be family size with how many of them there are.

He sits at the counter eyeing her for explanation as he pours the milk and cereal into the bowl. Julian looks at her expectantly too, eyebrows raised as he flips the page of his sketchbook to a new fresh page.

She sighs sitting down at the counter pulling Mark’s bowl of cereal to her and effectively stealing it for herself. He makes a small disgruntled noise, but accepts the loss getting another bowl as she fills her brothers in on the events of the past few days.

She tells them about odd little Simon Lewis and the crimes that Victor Aldertree had made her an accomplice to. Her brother’s both reassure her she is not at fault in the events that have occurred, that she just like them is always learning how to navigate and change in the world they were raised in.

She appreciates the sentiment and comforting understanding from them both.

“None of that however explains your big goofy smile,” Julian says when she’s finished her story. He looks down at his sketch book once again pencil shifting over the page in smooth lines.

“Well that was because of what happened after,” she says pausing to consume a giant spoonful of cereal as Mark pours his second bowl. She doesn’t know why she’s nervous, it’s not as if she hasn’t dated both men and women before, not that one flirtation is dating, or as if she’s never discussed her entanglements with her brothers. Though Mark isn’t always the best soundboard for these things, he’s a little morel literal than Julian who at his heart though he tries to hide it is a pure romantic.

“I met someone,” she says simply before launching into her encounter with Aline. Before she realizes it she’s talking nonstop about a two-minute interaction for nearly twenty minutes.

“So you had a meet-cute?” Julian says suddenly once she’s finally stopped talking. Evidently he’s been paying attention from where he’d been steadily sketching in his own world since asking his last question.

“I don’t recall her story having any meat in it,” Mark responds quizzically. Helen giggles as Julian rolls his eyes jumping down from the counter.

“Meet with two e’s, Mark,” he says leaning on the counter where they sit his arm shielding whatever he’s been sketching. “It’s a mundane phrase for when two people meet in a cute or charming way that leads to romantic development.”

“Ah,” Mark says shoving another spoonful of cereal into his mouth thoughtfully. “So our dear sister had a meet-cute with the Consul’s daughter?”

“She sure did,” Julian smirks winking at his sister playfully. Helen shakes her head.

“I don’t know if I’d call complimenting me after the near destruction of numerous species a meet-cute,” she says stirring the swirling colored milk around in her bowl. She also doesn’t even know if she’ll ever see Aline again despite the air of something that had lingered in their meeting.

Julian just shrugs ripping a page from his sketchbook and leaning down to write something on it quickly.

“In our world it is,” he says sitting the sheet down in front of her before kissing her on the top of her head as if he were the older sibling and bidding them both a goodnight.

She looks down at the sketch paper in front of her. It’s her. A smile she’s never seen on herself gracing her lips, a glow about her coming through in pencil. A small line of Lucky Charms marshmallows are hastily sketched along the bottom showing her that it’s her from mere moments ago talking about Aline.

 _If she makes you smile like this, it’s definitely a meet-cute,_ it says in Julian’s scribbly handwriting. She smiles down at the sketch running her fingers along the words deciding definitively in that moment that her brother is right, even if she has to seek out Aline to see her she will be seeing her again soon.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: [alecmagnuslwb](https://alecmagnuslwb.tumblr.com/)


End file.
